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The Dodd-Frank Act increased oversight of swaps deals to include any foreign financial institution doing substantial business with "U.S. persons." The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in a gesture to rally foreign regulators around U.S. efforts to rein in trading, said it plans to temporarily define "U.S. persons" to mean only U.S. residents and firms incorporated in the U.S., a change from language announced over the summer.

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On Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's relief that allowed non-U.S. swaps platforms to conduct transactions with "U.S. persons" expired. Market participants have adapted to continue to offer cross-border transactions. "There was a lot of uncertainty and anxiety when [swap-execution facilities] first went live, but for the most part, liquidity providers have been able to handle the flows across borders," said Chris Amen of Tradeweb Markets. "The market is still hoping and expecting more clarity from regulators in the future, but as of now, I don't expect the expiration of the no-action relief to cause a major liquidity issue."

The GC Pooling basket, which banks can use to meet collateral requirements for centrally cleared over-the-counter derivatives, has a compatibility problem, Anish Puaar writes. GC Pooling baskets cleared and traded through Eurex cater only to the assets held by Clearstream, leaving rival Euroclear either excluded or facing costly options.

Exchanges have been seen as the winners in the swaps-trading business under financial reforms, but that may not be the case as the regulatory environment may give an advantage to interdealer brokers, according to data from TABB Group.

SIFMA CEO Tim Ryan said at the organization's Annual Meeting in New York that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's plans to make all "non-U.S. persons" register as swap dealers in the U.S. are too extreme. Ryan said the proposal "breaks from standards of international comity by giving U.S. regulators unprecedented regulatory scope over activities taking place in Europe, Asia and other jurisdictions."

The June 30 deadline for filing TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, is fast approaching, and on Friday the IRS conceded that the new FBAR definition of "United States persons" requires additional guidance. Therefore, the IRS is temporarily allowing filers to use the old definition, meaning foreign taxpayers are relieved of their FBAR filing requirement. This relief applies only to FBAR filings due June 30, 2009. The IRS will issue guidance for future filings.